The Ledgers of Baldr: 4E300-4E353
Actions Ashelani The Queen, in Her infinite wisdom, cannot be assed to keep a hivemind of such size together, especially without a foreseeable end to population growth. She begins preparations for a rite designed long ago, originally in the case of Her death. Upon Her death, the Queen of the Ashelani is able to pass the hivemind along to Her predecessor, sparing Her the pain of sentience as She passes and creating a new center of the hivemind. This, She decides, would not solve the problem. No daughter of Hers is alone strong enough to support the mental stress of the hive in its current state. Instead, a great reform of the hivemind structure is planned. Over the course of 30 years, the proto-queens of the Ashelani shall be recalled to their jungle home, and given the nectar that would transform them into queens themselves. Yet the Queen is unready to surrender Her position of power. She will surrender regions of Ashelani territory to each protoqueen, sparing Her the burden of controlling each individual worker. However, She will use Her years of psychic and diplomatic prowess to maintain control over the regional queens, that no sister may fight against sister. She suspects, however, without the power of all of Her people, that She may no longer be able to completely dominate the mind of a fully developed Queen, as She might have done before. (Culture x4, -120 wealth) RIP my beautiful autocracy Kaz'ur Standing atop the outermost walls, the Salatim looks out on the teeming sea of refugees. There are thousands of them, some simply milling around, but the most by far crowded around the base of the walls, demanding access to the interior valley. "This," he remarks to the Zakatu, standing beside him, "is bad. Even if we could let them in, do we have anywhere near the resources they need?" Nodding his head, the Zakatu clenches his fists in frustration. "Not at all. Our agriculture industry within the valley is too small to support this many. We'll have to try moving outwards again. I had hoped we could disband an army to aid our economy at this point, but... it's too dangerous. Both our forces and the scouting legion need to be on full alert. An Ashik announces from the walls to the assembled refugees that for those willing to cooperate, the Scouting Legion will escort them to new, hopefully arable land in the South. (Actions 1, Expansion) Work continues, despite the concerns of some, on the Academy. The council, however, has unanimously decided to continue construction, as they believe that the solution to the refugee problem may rest within their newly found magic. (Action 2, continue the Academy). Fayyad is, by the standards of his people, barely an adult. One of the new generations of Ashik to be born into this immortal world, he is only 50 years old, and has witnessed the death and suffering outside the walls since he came of age. As well, he happens to be one of the more accomplished Magi the Ashik have. He knows that the unanimous decision among scholars is that their magic relies upon changing the nature of things in the environment. To the uninspired, this is simply a tool to light something on fire, to make something more resistant to blows, and so on. Fayyad believes that he can manipulate variables within living beings themselves. As his early experiments suggest, death is most likely still beyond him. Early tests with some of the undead wargoats, however, suggest that he may be able to, by manipulating the biological variables, destroy these 'immortal illnesses' as well as restore nutrition to the newly grown crops that have contributed to the never-ending hunger of those cursed by undeath. (Research, Actions 3-4) Stavengar Guillaume and Vicengrin point out to the Senate that the odds of there being another war is very high, and all those who say otherwise are idiots. Therefore, some army must be raised. (Armyx1). Wishing to further mend the bonds between the Stavengarans, Guillaume orders the creation of a national park filled with monuments to great warriors and heros of both sides of the war. Statues of Vicengrin, Borgrek, and Azaghal spring up in the new Pinnacle Park, complete with tour guides and those handy little info plaques. A portion of the park is also devoted to a graveyard, housing all the dwarf dead from the war, and with space for future war deaths. This park will be built a few miles out from Stavengar the city, on the site of the battle. (Culturex3). Mu'lakka Due to the suddenly-announced holiday declared of national importance by Rak'Min, Mu'lakkan Victory wine resurges with a massive marketing boost. Posters go up in the cities, balloons trail long banners, and refurbished - and reprogrammed - Derultians smuggled in by The Sand Hawks go door-to-door offering cases of the stuff. After the marketing begins to go viral, the owners of the Mu'lakkan Victory Vineyards decide to look into improving the quality of the wine to commemorate the event. (Income 1) Colonists continue to push outwards through the lush forests surrounding their Manukan colonies, trying to find new land suitable near to the nation of Legaros. (Expansion 2) Rak'Min realizes that he could, as leader, require his people to donate a percentage of their earnings for national endeavors, and sends out a proclamation across his lands that a meager 5% of all the population's production be donated to the nearest government collection facility (Tax income 3) While the actual construction of ships has halted due to branches continuing to grow out of them, shipbuilders go back to the drawing board and draw up a plethora of designs, some purely practical and some utterly ridiculous. From ships that sit inside a ring of the levitating runners to massive behemoths that require said runners to not sink, to balloon-ships capable of being launched in the water and then ascending into the air, pages upon pages of designs are drawn up in the hopes that some of them might be remotely useful in the future, when hopefully they will be able to build ships again. (Navy research 4) Ignati The shame of the Ignati is too much for even a dragon-lord to bear. Chimeryx locks himself in his chambers, refusing to address any matters of state. A tearful Len-Igna reports that he has been drinking himself unconscious every night for weeks. Doggedly loyal to his king, Kilaki takes up the interim mantle of rule. He travels village to village, desperately trying to reinstate the practices of meditation that for a fleeting 30 years showed such promise. Hunger Research x4 Hall of the Five Gojac invites a Shrine Titan Alpha to join him in his mountainous resort for the weekend, and the two of them discover their alcohol limit. After a wild night, Gojac finds he is sore for the first time in 1400 years. (1: Titan-human hybrid "research") Kellus helps out with Garma's work on time-statis fields. Fascinating stuff. (2 & 3) Rucahn fully realizes that it's kind of his job to figure out the end of death and the loss of Abbadon's powers, but family comes before business. He sits Abbadon down in a dimly lit room and demands to speak to his family. He tells Abbadon that he will have his powers back once Rucahn has his family back. (4: culture???) Legaros Upon hearing of the success of Hawafi al-Saud, emmisaries are sent to all other nations in two large groups, bringing word of the message he received, so that various nations can begin searching for the culprit on their own. (Curse Research 1+2). News of these messengers, and the tale of progress they bear, spread throughout the population of Legaros, and the public begin to feel hope for the first time since the start of their immortality. (Culture 3). However, Emperor Basoferyx does not react to this news the same way. Once he learns that the curse was engineered by mortal hands, he becomes convinced that the purpose of the whole endeavor is to target him. He therefore barricades himself in his largest mansion, communicating with the rest of his government through birds, smoke signals, and the not-so-infrequent rude gesture, and orders his royal guard to practice their slicing and fighting technique on those he declares enemies of the state, and holds captive on his lawn. (Army Research 4) Results: The Ashelani Dominion: 11, 7, 3, 2 The Shattering strikes just as the old Queen had predicted, however, the psychic holds of the protoqueens were not nearly strong enough to rein in all the minds of the Ashelani, and soon, the entire structure of your society was undermined. The Queen, engorged and unable to move at all, was torn apart by her mindless, ravenous guards, and currently exists as a writhing pile of purple and black viscera all over the floor of the main hive’s resin antechamber. The Ashelani have turned on each other, and the hives are now dark, treacherous lairs inhabited by hunger-centric killing machines. Already, many have left the nation and are headed all over Ardunne, foraging for what little food can be found and cannibalizing each other. In fact, many are even tearing off their own flesh and literally self-cannibalizing—driven completely mad by hunger. Three protoqueens—Len-Igna, Len-Scholus, and Len-Torol, have remained in control of their sub-minds and were untouched by the Shattering, but the rest have all been butchered and eaten alive by their own offspring. Already, hordes of wild and savage Ashelani have been spotted massing across the fissure, presumably to cross into dwarf lands, and elsewhere, millions march west toward the Emerald Valley. Kaz’ur: 12, 13, 18, 16 The refugees outside the walls number in the millions, it is estimated, and numerous attempts to scale the walls to reach the inside of your nation have had to be rebuffed over the past few decades. A few of the giant, spider-like beasts developed by the Ashelani before the Shattering have been spotted skirting the wall segments, trying to make their way into the interior. If the refugees ever set aside their differences and united as a military force, their numbers would be so overwhelming that the walls would be breached within a week. The expansion to the south yields pithy resources—most of the area has been completely stripped bare by refugees looking for food, but on mountaintops where many have not traveled, small fields are found that could sustain a few people (-10 wealth, +4 income). The Academy of Magic is finally completed, yielding a surplus of magical awareness and study in your nation, and over 30 years, your country amasses a great wealth of magic-related literature and grounding (+2 to researching magic). Over the years, Fayyad’s research makes more ground—diseases are incurable, but they can be suppressed for lengths of time, and while crops cannot be made more nutritious, they can be coaxed via magic into growing faster, producing more overall yield (your country is immune to culture loss due to undeath this turn and next turn). Divination—interpretation of the will of the Great Father, is the most revered school of magic in your homeland, however, a recent proclamation from your acclaimed divining council has been silenced by your leaders for fear of the panic it will incite in the populace. The great walls of your nation, they say, will eventually be breached by a ceaseless tide of refugees—united under a great leader who will lay waste to the interior and scale the heights of the tower itself. Stavengar: 4, 3, 13, 10 For fifty years the Senate has staunchly opposed raising an army—in spite of rumors from the north that great hosts of savage, uncontrollable Ashelani are gathering at the edge of the fissure. Guillaume’s mind, like the minds of all of his elderly kinsmen, has dulled completely. Vicengrin, fifty years his senior, has gone completely mad and had to be removed from consulship. Guillaume’s power is now largely ceremonial, and a younger consul (you get to name him) makes most important policy decisions on his own. Despite the ailing minds of about half the dwarf population, your government is in good shape compared to the rest of Ardunne. Kaz’ur, it seems, is no longer the continent’s economic power—as its small landholdings don’t allow for much domestic income, even though it gains more profit from trade. That laurel now rests with the dwarfs as it once did in the past. Despite the feeling of economic accomplishment, the people of Stavengar are unhappy about the way the growing food shortage has been going. World population has long outstripped world food capacity, and common folk everywhere are starving. In the south of your nation, various political leaders have been rumored to be participants in the Mysteries—underground, ritualistic dwarfen cults that worship death. Pinnacle Park is not really a success, as the dwarf corpses have all been dug up for food at some point or another over the past century. The project is quietly scrapped. The Mu’lakka Lands: 6, 17, 17, 4 Derultians cannot be reprogrammed—your civilization is unable to decipher the archaic old Derultian language that is etched into their bodies. Even if you scientists could understand it—all changes to Derultian coding, rusted outlaws tell you, come from inside the highly guarded clockwork complex known as Central City—a place that no human in recorded history has ever laid eyes upon. And any attempt to tamper with the lucrative secret recipe for Mu’lakkan Victory Wine is met with rejection. Critics at home have come to terms with the national drink over the past 150 years, but in Legaros, writers complain that the wine “tastes like the horrid syphilitic discharge of the devil himself.” People in the colonies still use the drink to permanently kill their tastebuds so that they can stomach the animal dung they now eat to survive. Corn, as a crop, has been scrapped because people have found that the grain—over the course of decades-- will grow roots and embed itself in your stomach lining, causing the worst pain imaginable. This discovery has wiped out most of your food stores. Southward, your colonists have made contact with Legaros at last (-10 wealth, +6 income) (will one of you please initiate trade so Dylan can have some income). The tax rate has been raised 5% so that Rak’Min can make a boatload (+3 income). Finally, naval research makes no progress—your scientists are busy starving. The Ignati Tribes: 19, 15, 10, 17 The incorrigible fatasses of your nation have been put to work in what Kilaki and his aide, Fier’lk, brother of Chimeryx, are calling “corrective meditation.” After years of corralling obese dragon-men out of the town squares and into the mines, so they can “meditate more effectively,” meditation is back in style. Through glorification of discipline, your species is now more in touch with the warrior culture that they had lost many years ago. The weight gain, though, cannot be helped. It has nothing to do with how much they eat, but seems to be an inevitable side effect of your species’ immortality. Chiermyx still refuses to leave his room, though, despite the progress reports that Fier’lk has been slipping to him though the door. Chimeryx occasionally requests mud—his brother has no idea why. Behind four bolted door locks, the Lord of Hosts is on a serious pottery kick, unbeknownst to everyone else, and has kept himself entertained by making a new little clay figurine every day. An army of 6,500 tiny dragon-man figurines is meticulously arranged on the floor of the room in battle formation, lined up facing the kiln. After forty years of meditation, it is hypothesized that the strength of will exerted by your people is enough to combat the insidious corruption of the Hunger. Scientists don’t know why they hypothesize this—seeing as it has no basis in magical or physical law. Kilaki tells scientists that they hypothesize what he wants them to. Hunger research, at long last, is complete. Halls of the Five: 8, 17, 12, 15 “Well hey,” Kellus says, clapping the Creator on the back, “unless your research was to see if you could still get the clap after five hundred years…” “It was not,” Gojac says morosely. “Well then, I’d have to call… whatever the hell that was… a failure by any rational sense of the word.” “Just tell me how to get rid of it,” Gojac says, “It’s driving me up the wall.” Kellus tuts, a bemused expression on his face. “Well, since the bacteria can’t really be killed, I guess you have gonorrhea forever. Congratulations.” Gojac groans. “What am I supposed to do to deal with that? I have to CREATE, Kellus! The world needs me! How am I going to deal with the day-to-day encumbrance of … you know?” “Well,” the Alterer says, “I guess more drinking on your part wouldn’t hurt.” The chronostasis fields have been completed after a solid thirty years of tinkering and fiddling—and the Hunger can no longer grow at all within the confines of your nation. The field can also be stretched out to accommodate whatever future landholdings you may hold. The Inquirer immerses himself in the Narrative, the new Narrative, to learn the location of The Destroyer, as well as to catch up on world history for the past hundred or so years. Death, who had run away years ago, is working in one of the Mu’lakkan colonies as a chef in what Rucahn grudgingly has to admit is a respectable restaurant, although the only thing on the menu is crab meat and limp boiled greens. He confronts death, and pulls him aside, proposing that, if he helps Abaddon get his powers back, then death will bring his family back. “You already have your wife and the fucking kid,” he scowls, “who else could you possibly want?” Rucahn calmly explains that his aunt was very dear to him while Abaddon grumbles and stirs a pot of greens. “If it means getting me my powers back, I’ll raise whoever the hell you want,” he says (+1 culture). Legaros: 20, 21, 15, 14 The undeath, it is revealed, somehow had something to do with the scheming of the Ashelani. This is all according to your magicians, who have divined the origin of the curse and isolated it in northeast Ardunne. Of course, the hive mind of the species has long since collapsed, but one of the remaining sentient protoqueens, your mages say, is actively sustaining the curse somehow, and has been doing so for 150 years. With this news predictably comes the backlash against the scant Ashelani citizens of Legaros, who are now victims of mob violence and persecution. All of this hatred and ostracizing of the unfamiliar and incredibly foreign insectiod menace has made the divided races of Legaros grow closer together (+1 culture). The black-skinned mad dragon emperor, who, like Chimeryx, has also become a shut-in, is pleased to observe the training exercises taking place outside his window, which seem to actually be effective in making sure your troops fight well together (+2 military). Category:The Ledgers of Baldr